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According to Amazon, conveniently being released on August 22

Fantastic news. I didn't even realize this was being prepared. Surely one of the finest films of the new decade.

Now I just wish that Second Run would release Botelho's A Corte do Norte.

I've never heard of this but it's certainly piqued my interest! Could anyone tell me if this falls under the same sort of contemplative/minimalist style as the best of Denis, Hou, Tsai, Weerasethakul, Diaz, Alonso, Kiarostami etc? Or is it more plot based?

It's not as schematically split down the center as this but more-or-less the first half recalls Kiarostami's 90's work (or something like Ceylan's great Clouds of May) in terms of its interest in and examination of meta-filmic questions of filmmaker involvement and cultural imposition within a remote rural setting. The latter half sheds the explicitness of its documentary set up and develops into a subtle human drama, the elements of which were there, finely integrated all along (the primary characters, for instance, develop from being almost background participants in the first half's larger mosaic). There are shades of Apichatpong--particularly since much of the film constitutes extended depictions of music numbers during the folk festival around which the film centers. Gomes's cinematic style, however, is much more defiantly Portuguese (Oliveira, Costa, especially). So, anyway, what you have here is a meta exercise that cedes to a character based study that is still, always, never apart from that fundamental, establishing first part.

Thank god, I've been wanting to see this for a very long time. My elation is insane to the point where all I can think of is what possibilities it opens up that your doing a second Portuguese film maker. I hope this is a hint of a lot more to come. Can I dream of A Divine Comedy? You guys always manage to outdo yourselves.

Really happy to read your comments about Beloved Month. We loved Miguel Gomes' film from the moment we saw it and were surprised that no one wanted to touch it for even a limited theatrical release in the UK.
On our DVD we will also be including a wonderful short he made in 2006 called Canticle of all Creatures.

I was going to ask that, but considering the length of the feature I thought that would be out of the question. I love it when you guys add shorts. Actually in the case of The Lighthouse I preferred the short. Definitely a happy surprise.

Shorts are the best special feature one can ask for. Can't wait to pick this up.

Bad News. We're now going to have to wait til September 12th for this one (Our Beloved Month of September, apparently). It's been postponed to one of the most bloated weeks of the stacked next month.

Good News: The great cover art just got stunning:

CR2 wrote:Bad News. We're now going to have to wait til September 12th for this one (Our Beloved Month of September, apparently). It's been postponed to one of the most bloated weeks of the stacked next month.

Sadly, Second Run were just as affected by the Sony DADC fire as most other indie labels, so both Father and this have been delayed while they deal with the rather more urgent task of reprinting their back catalogue.

Equally unfortunately, that's what loads of other people seem to be doing, so the late August trickle is turning into a September flood - but there's not a lot they can do about that, apart from delay it even more.

Yes, as Michael has pointed out the arson fire at Enfield has affected not only our catalogue releases, but has had a knock-on effect for upcoming titles. As a result the new, NEW release date for Our Beloved Month of August is now September 26th.

Have to say I much prefer the original cover on this one, although to be fair, I haven't seen the film so perhaps the new cover is more fitting...

I have a shrinkwrapped copy sitting next to me, hot off the press - so it's a very safe bet that the official September 26 release date will now be met, and that retailers will be in a position to send them out by the end of next week.

Full details - and trailer - are now up at our website.

You can also view the trailer here.

Beaver.

DVD Outsider:

Another hugely impressive, director-approved, transfer from Second Run, one with a splendidly crisp picture (particularly for a DVD) and spot-on contrast that achieves solid black levels without decimating the shadow detail. The colours are reasonably naturalistic and on occasion really pop, notably the red of the roosters that bookend the film. Film grain in visible but has thankfully not been emphasised through enhancement (there are no traces of that here), and while some dust spots are evident on uncluttered backgrounds, they are rare and never distracting. The framing is 1.66:1 and anamorphically enhanced. A very fine job.

E-Film Blog:

Godard once said of Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar (1966), "Everyone who sees this film will be absolutely astonished, because this film is really the world in an hour and a half." The same could be said of Our Beloved Month Of August, a beguiling work of facto-fiction in which every frame is a new adventure.

Mondo Digital:

Some of this unique approach sprang from necessity when the original, more streamlined production was put on hold, forcing director Gomes to forge ahead anyway with a small crew shooting in 16mm during the real August festival. The experiment pays off as a seemingly straightforward snapshot of a colorful community ritual turns into a cinematically unique meditation on the act of storytelling itself. Are the people we meet in the beginning of the film real? Where does the line between scripted or improvsed playacting begin? After a while you won't care; soaked in vibrant images and sounds captured in rough but disarming quality, it's a notable filmic gamble that should be more widely seen.

From the latest Sight & Sound

Miguel's new film TABU just premiered at the Berlin Film Festival - and subsequently won the Bauer Prize for Innovation.
David Jenkins from Little White Lies was lucky enough to see TABU and his ecstatic response is here

Our Beloved Miguel Gomes - words by Harriet at Cinematic Investigations

This is one of my favorite films of last decade. Any chance that Mr. Gomes's first feature could be released?

I enjoyed this film a lot, but Gomes' new film Tabu is even better, so I hope Second Run have got their eye on that as well if nobody else snaps it up.